Sensex, Nifty start trade on choppy note, Maruti Suzuki down by 2%

Sensex, Nifty on Monday started trade on choppy notes, erasing early gains. The benchmark BSE Sensex, at 9:21 AM, was up by 49.29 points to trade at 34,905.67 while Nifty was at 10,607.00. Pharma and auto stocks witnessed weaknesses, the shares were down by 0.8  per cent. Sun Pharma, Maruti Suzuki India and Cipla - trading around 1-2 per cent lower - were among the top losers on the 50-scrip Nifty index.

PSU, banking, metal, IT capital goods and teck indices rose by up to 0.43 per cent.

Support at NSE came from TCS, SBI, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, L&T, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, Adani Ports, Yes Bank, Power Grid, NTPC and HDFC Bank, which climbed by up to 2.05 per cent.

Asian markets were higher in early trade. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1.21 per cent while Japan's Nikkei rose 0.49 per cent. Shanghai Composite too was up 0.64 per cent.

Meanwhile, US stock futures jumped on Monday as US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the US trade war with China is "on hold" after the world's two largest economic powers agreed to drop their tariff threats while they work on a wider trade agreement.

S&P mini futures rose 0.6 per cent in early Asian trade on Monday.

Investors trading Asian stocks were cautious. Japan's Nikkei ticked up 0.1 per cent while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was off 0.1 percent in early trade.

Mnuchin and U.S. President Donald Trump's top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said the agreement reached by Chinese and American negotiators on Saturday set up a framework for addressing trade imbalances in the future.

"The weekend talk appears to have made progress. While they still need to work out details of a wider trade deal, it is positive for markets that they struck a truce," said Hirokazu Kabeya, chief global strategist at Daiwa Securities.

US bond yields rose as safe-haven demand for debt fell, with the 10-year Treasuries yield rising 1.5 basis points to 3.082 percent, near a seven-year high of 3.128 percent hit on Friday.

"Recent data suggests the US economy is very strong, hardly slowing down in Jan-Mar. The world economy slowed in that quarter but it appears to be rebounding. And recent rises in oil prices are likely to lift inflation expectations further," said Tomoaki Shishido, senior fixed income analyst at Nomura Securities.

(With inputs from agencies)